Selling your home as a FSBO (for sale by owner) puts you at a huge disadvantage from the starting gate. I’ve seen that many times over the past 30 years. I don’t do any cold calling of FSBO’s. I’m pretty darn busy just working with buyers, and I don’t have the time. Keith Sorem, an agent in Glendale, California, wrote a concise article on FSBO’s, and with his permission I’ve reprinted it here.

Given the current market condition I suggest that you think long and hard about your decision [to sell on your own]. A couple of helpful facts:

In a “normal” market about 10% of homes sell without professional representation. This is not a normal market.

There have been significant changes in how appraisals are conducted since May 1st causing major problems in valuation. so buyers who finance their purchase are having to cancel escrows, sellers are having to lower prices.

In August there are new underwriting guidelines coming out, which are going to make it even harder for buyers to qualify.

According to a recent survey buyers have a Realtor represent them about 90% of the time. From the buyer’s perspective they get a “free agent”, so it is a good deal for them, In most markets there is a lot of inventory, so the problem by selling on your own is that the Realtors are not looking on other websites for their buyer’s homes. Your listing basically does not exist.

My suggestion is that you should interview a few Realtors, have them analyze your property and situation, then if you want to try it on your own, go ahead, you might get luck.

Know that 76% of sellers eventually list with a Realtor. 5% sell to someone they know, 5% sell to someone they don’t know. When they sell they, on average, sell for 16% less than the average sold by Realtors.

For a full discussion of the two multiple listing services and how marketing real estate compares, including the FSBO issues, see the Sequim MLS and the NWMLS.

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• Sequim Homes for Sale – FSBO eBook Download
• Why Can’t I Just Sell My Own Home? What’s So Hard About That?

Do you have a Sequim home for sale, maybe a FSBO?   Retired real estate attorney Chuck Marunde, now a real estate broker, Internet marketing consultant, and writer, wrote an eBook for homeowners who have thought about selling their own homes.   The eBook is short and to the point, but with the content and the resources made available in the eBook, there are over a 100 pages of solid content, especially for the Sequim and Port Angeles homeowner.

The subjects covered include topics on arriving at an accurate fair market value, appraisals, advertising and marketing, negotiating like an expert, an MLS tool for homeowners to look at what is for sale now in Clallam County, free classifieds for advertising, a list of document titles for the legal documents that may be needed, and traps for the unwary (like the Form 17 Seller’s Disclosure).

Download Free FSBO eBook

FOR VISTA users:   If you are running VISTA on your computer, after you download the program, you open it by right clicking on the icon and then clicking on the “Run as Administrator” button.   On XP or other operating systems, you don’t have to do that, but VISTA is quirky.

Offered as a courtesy of Chuck Marunde, J.D. and SequimRealEstateNews.com.   May I also recommend a new online newspaper at Sequim-News.com.

Possibly Related Posts:

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• FSBO asks Should I List My House Above FMV
• Selling FSBO Huge Disadvantage
• Free For Sale By Owner Consultation with Retired Real Estate Lawyer and Broker
• Why Can’t I Just Sell My Own Home? What’s So Hard About That?

From a FSBO in Sequim I received the following question.   Enclosed is my response.

Question: I’m interested in selling my own home for one reason–to save the real estate commission.   What’s wrong with that?

Answer: Nothing.   That’s a good American reason to be a For-Sale-By-Owner.   The question is, can you?   In other words, do you know how to price your home?   Do you know how to collect accurate information on fair market value?   Do you know how to make adjustments in the prices of the comparables?   Do you know the most and least effective ways to advertise and market?   Do you have experience developing compelling sales scripts that will attact buyers?   What about negotiating?   Can you negotiate for top dollar while not killing a transaction with a good buyer?   Do you know all about terms that change your net proceeds?   Are you aware of the top mistakes that FSBO’s make regularly?   Do you know about tax implications?   Are you a competent document draftsman?   Can you include all relevant terms and langauge without ambiguities?   Do you know what legal documents are required by law in Washington and Clallam County, and in Sequim and Port Angeles?   Can you help your buyer get a loan (there’s much more to this step than 99% realize)?   Can you provide the kind of attention and focus needed from the day there is a written agreement with your buyer  until closing?    Iin other words, do you know how to be a transaction coordinator?

If your answer to all of these question is an intelligent “yes,” than I encourage you to sell your own home.   But if you can’t talk for 20 minutes on each of these issues, you may be  unprepared.   It takes many of us a lifetime to really begin to get good at many or most of these steps.   No one is naturally good at all of these things.    There are too many details that must be learned on the street.    If you have gained the knowledge and experience to competently handle all these questions and all the issues  within each question, I would say, “Go for it, and God speed.”

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• Sequim Homes for Sale – FSBO eBook Download

Sequim FSBOs and Port Angeles FSBOs are having a tough time selling their homes, just as real estate agents are listing but not doing much selling.   The market is slow, and on top of that we are in the slow winter months for home sales here.

While it is true that sales are few and far between right now, it is also true that the Sequim and Port Angeles areas have not suffered the crashing prices that so many other areas of the country have.   Las Vegas is down by 30% and even more in some areas.   My son recently moved to Vegas in a job transfer, and has made an offer on a 3 bedroom, 2 bath ranch home in a nice area.   The home was listed at $139,000, and his offer was accepted by the owners at $129,000 subject to a short sale (the bank approving the purchase since the net proceeds will be less than the current balance of the owner’s mortgage).   Okay, that’s an amazingly low price for a nice home like that in a nice area, but the Vegas real estate market crashed.   Developers and builders overbuilt, and the economy there has taken a huge hit, there have been job layoffs, and a lot of homes are in foreclosure.

No so with Sequim and Port Angeles.   Some might say, “Gee, I wish we could buy a house in Sequim for $129,000.”   If you could, that would mean that our market had crashed, that our local economy was in shambles, and that thousands of homes are in foreclosure.   But none of that is true, so you cannot buy a house here for $129,000.   Thank God!   Thousands of homeonwers here are thankful that their homes have not been devalued.

This is actually good news for Sequim and Port Angeles homeowners and investors who are thankful they haven’t suffered terribly like so many around the country.   While this may not be fantastic news for buyers, it should be encouraging, because it means we have a stable real estate market here, and that is very good news.   Our prices are still down and sales are down, but nothing like Vegas.

Possibly Related Posts:

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• Selling FSBO Huge Disadvantage
• Free For Sale By Owner Consultation with Retired Real Estate Lawyer and Broker
• Sequim Homes for Sale – FSBO eBook Download

If you’re selling your Sequim or Port Angeles home, if you’re tired of trying yourself as a FSBO (For Sale By Owner), and you want the power of the Internet as well as the functionality of the local MLS, and you want to take advantage of 30 years of real estate law and sales experience, you might consider this new listing service offered by Sequim & Port Angeles Real Estate, LLC and Chuck Marunde.   Watch this brief video to learn more.

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Are you a FSBO, aka for-sale-by-owner, aka for sale by owner?   Or are you planning to list your home for sale with an agent?   In either event, in order to sell your home for the highest possible price in a reasonable period of time, you must have a good advertising plan.   If you don’t, you could get stuck with your house on the market for a long, long time, or you could sell it for much less than you should get at FMV (fair market value), or both.

This is the 3rd installment in our series entitled,   “How to Advertise a Home for Sale. ”   Today we look at Using the Internet to Sell Your Home. The Internet is unquestionably the most powerful tool for buying and selling real estate today.   Traditional advertising has long since peaked and has been declining in effectiveness for at least a decade.   Today, newsprint and magazines and billboards are three of the least effective means of advertising real estate.   This does not mean these tactics should never be used.   It does mean that they should be used sparingly, and rationally based on the return for the dollar spent.

For a long time now, the Internet has been used by real estate agents to post their listings in their local multiple listing service (MLS), and while that was originally only accessible by members of the MLS by subscription, it has become searchable by the public through what is called an IDX accessible database through the real estate agents’ websites.   It doesn’t include all of the data available to agents, but at least it is a nice way for the public to plug in their parameters and be able to see what active listings are available. The Internet also has become a powerful tool to advertise listings on agent websites and blogs, as well as numerous subscription and online classifieds.   Most agents (about 98% of them in my speculation) still are not in tune with this technology and are not using it to benefit their clients.

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Possibly Related Posts:

• Why The For-Sale-By-Owner (FSBO) is Hard to Sell
• FSBO asks Should I List My House Above FMV
• Selling FSBO Huge Disadvantage
• Free For Sale By Owner Consultation with Retired Real Estate Lawyer and Broker
• Sequim Homes for Sale – FSBO eBook Download